Computing Resources
===================

Condor
------

An account on the Condor Cluster (patas.ling.washington.edu) is also required. Feel free to develop using whatever OS you prefer. But please keep in mind that all homework assignments  **must** ultimately run on the cluster. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with this system, in particular how to run code  using ``condor_submit``. See the `CLMA wiki pages <http://depts.washington.edu/uwcl/twiki/bin/view.cgi/Main/HowToUseCondor>`_ for help on this. You should use this if you expect your code to take up a lot of processing resources.


Languages
-----------

For this course, you can use any programming language you like. Some good choices (based on available NLP code) are:

- Python
- Perl
- C#
- Java


.. `Python <http://www.python.org>`_ resources

.. The main documentation hub for Python can be found \htlink{here}{http://www.python.org/doc}.


Software 
---------
.. \noindent For this course we will be using the \htlink{Natural Language Toolkit}{http://www.nltk.org} (NLTK). It is installed on Patas and I suggest you install it on your home machine as well.

Here are some useful links to software resources:


.. NLTK \htlink{Documentation}{http://www.nltk.org/documentation} page
.. How to \htlink{install}{http://www.nltk.org/download} the NLTK on your machine.
.. The NLTK \htlink{Book}{http://www.nltk.org/book}: use this for specific reading assignments (also linked from the on-line course \htmlref{schedule}{schedule}).
.. NLTK \htlink{API Docs}{http://nltk.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/doc/api/index.html}
.. NLTK \htlink{HOWTOs}{http://nltk.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/doc/howto/index.html} (can be out of date)